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Small Victorian railway buildings

Discussion in 'Steam Traction' started by Phill S, Mar 3, 2021.

  1. Phill S

    Phill S New Member

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    Here's an odd request, not sure where it fits, but figure it vaguely links to steam era...

    I am drawing up plans for a workshop in my garden. I want to do the front face in old common imperial bricks, of which I have retrieved and cleaned up about 1500 from various skips. I want it to look, at least to the casual observer, like it might have been there since Victorian times.
    I have mostly red common bricks, but have a good few engineers blues, and some white/cream bricks. I want to use these to put in some diapering patterns. Obviously they're only commons, not facing bricks, but I think I could get a reasonable effect with them. I'll probably do the bargeboards with a little ornamentation, and maybe arch the door and window tops.
    A drawing of the outline is attached, dimensions in millimetres. For those viewing in black and white, it will be 13ft at the roof peak, 8ft at the eaves,16ft wide.

    So, the point of my post. Does anyone have any photos of small, red brick built buildings, either railway works or other industrial, with features that might be interesting to include? Living in Derby, Midland railway buildings would be ideal.

    In short, I'm looking for:

    Small Victorian/Edwardian industrial buildings
    Built from rough commons, not facing bricks
    Brick patterns/diapering/other interesting things.
     

    Attached Files:

  2. flying scotsman123

    flying scotsman123 Resident of Nat Pres

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    My immediate thought was a weighbridge, something like this one at Burton? Similar sorts of examples had a brick arch over the door too, and maybe a base of engineering blues all round. I'm not sure diapering was that common on those sorts of smaller, "functional" buildings, as opposed to more passenger-orientated buildings.
     
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  3. Phill S

    Phill S New Member

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    That the sort of thing, not sure if I'll go for stone lintels/sills, but the jutting out brickwork round the roof is the sort of detail I'm looking for.
     
  4. Squiffy

    Squiffy New Member

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    As mentioned above, a few courses of blue engineering bricks at the base was very common as were bullnose bricks at door openings to get rid of the sharp corner. Brick arches, curved or the flatter variety, were also ubiquitous over door and window apertures being cheaper than the stone alternatives. Bear in mind that walls were solid so being a full brick thickness (8.5” or 215 mm) Flemish Bond or English Bond rather than Stretcher bond is a more authentic look. Depending upon the length and height of the building the stability of the external wall might have required stiffening by the thickening at corners and the introduction of intermediate brick piers which could be further developed with a thicker plinth and corbelling below the eaves. One major difference between historic and contemporary brickwork was the use of lime mortar which allows for thinner joints owing to its greater plasticity. It is surprising how much of a visual impact that has.

    I am architecturally trained and would be happy to take a look at your project if you would like some further comments.
     

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